Michael A. De Leon is a graphic designer by day, but wears many hats in his off time. In 2004, after several years of covering the Spurs, he started Project Spurs, a Spurs team fansite as an outlet to provide content to Spurs fans, while continuing to write for himself and learning the ins and outs of online publishing and web design. He has since built a writing team and started a popular weekly Spurs podcast called the Spurscast.

Note: This is an mySA.com City Brights Blog. These blogs are not written or edited by mySA or the San Antonio Express-News. The authors are solely responsible for the content.

A — I have one year, this year, and two more years after this. I think they’re going to tell me to go home after that. That’s what I’m planning on right now.

Q — If you feel as good then as you do now would you want to keep going?

A – I’d love to play as long as I can. I want to be as effective on the court. I don’t’ want to be on the court just to be on the court. I’m a player. I’m a competitor. If I can do it the way I want to do it, yeah, I’ll keep doing it.”

If by “they” Duncan is referring to the Spurs organization, then they might have to reconsider. At 33 years old, this season Duncan is averaging 19.4 points, 10.7 rebounds and 1.8 blocks in 32.1 minutes per game. Not too bad for someone considered “over the hill” for NBA standards.

Granted he will be 35 years old by the time his contract is up, but Duncan is proving he can still be a force in the paint and be an integral piece to the Spurs.

We’ve seen other big men in the NBA be very effective in the twilight of their careers. Kareem Abdul Jabbar is the perfect example. Kareem at 33 years old averaged 26.2 points, 10.3 rebounds, 2.8 blocks in 37.2 minutes. His numbers did start to have a decline after 33, but he was still very effective for the Lakers. Kareem played 20 seasons in the NBA, and retired at 42 years old. In his final season, Jabbar averaged 10.1 points, 4.5 rebounds and 1.1 blocks in 22.9 minutes per game. It also helped that Jabbar played with guys like Magic Johnson and James Worthy to prolong his career.